WARLOCK - A Destiny Fanfic
by OneMage
Summary: This is simply my version of what's going on in the Destiny Universe. If there is a good reaction to the first two chapters I hope to write some more following through the main story line and even doing some of the strikes, raids, prison of elders, pvp etc. I don't own Destiny or any of the characters Bungie has created. Cover Image provided by
1. Prologue - Burning Alive

**W.A.R.L.O.C.K - Prologue - Burning Alive**

By: Matthew Yancy

Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny or Bungie or anything like that.

 _ **You want to hear about the war? Well I wasn't there when it started. I died a hundred years or so before the darkness came, but I have made my mark. Before I died I was the first, W.A.R.L.O.C.K., most people don't know that it started as an acronym. Same with T.I.T.A.N. AND H.U.N.T.E.R. None of that matters any more of course, but I was one of the head researchers so that gives me some authority to talk on the subject.**_

I stared down at the glove sitting in front of me. Maybe three weeks had passed since we blew up the last one and I had finally re-created it. Our program was so far out on the edge of research that everything had to be made by hand because it was all so unique. That also meant that investors got super pissed whenever explosions like the last one happened which destroyed said unique products. Thankfully no one had died but it had happened before and wasn't out of the realm of possibility yet. As head researcher of the Solar Arms division of W.A.R.L.O.C.K. I wasn't actually supposed to be doing all of this work, but all of my researchers transferred out after the last explosion and none of those transferring in had passed their security screenings yet. Several of those that left went to the G.H.O.S.T. division in the hopes that the revitalization technology would prove feasible with more hands on it such tragedies could be made a thing of the past. The advent of the Traveler was a miracle in that respect. It made the possible the idea of a future where people could be saved from any life-threatening condition. Technology that had seemed millennia away was now only days, weeks or months out with the right amount of ingenuity and humanity had been working with the Travelers Light for quite some time already. The different divisions started out focused on various areas of research with Light and I think you will be able to see how they developed into the Guardian focuses you see today.

W.A.R.L.O.C.K. stood for Worldwide Association of Researchers in Light for Observation, Control and Kinesthetics. We definitely came up with the acronym first because by the time we really got going there were multiple worlds involved and we had expanded far beyond those three categories. We wanted to use the Traveler's Light to expand what we could observe in the universe around us, control different forms of energy and expand the limits of the human body.

T.I.T.A.N. researchers were focused on making harsh and physically demanding environments safer for people to live in or just to explore. Terrain Identification, Terra-Forming and Navigation used bulky and hardy environmental suits to survive and study extreme regions of space and were the ones in charge of making every planet, moon and large asteroid in the system survivable.

Habitat Upkeep and Natural Tragedy Eradication and Response teams spent their time developing better ways to maintain the environments that Titans tamed. They had a dream that they would be able to completely eliminate deaths due to natural disasters. Ultimately they were pragmatists though so they also developed systems and technologies to allow them to save the people caught in the disasters that did occur.

Now I have left for last the one that requires the most explanation, G.H.O.S.T. This program would have ended the war before it began from what I understand, but even in my time the direction of the teams was extremely unfocused. Gerontology, Healing, Orthopedics, Sociology and Technology wanted to stop aging, heal every disease, correct ever deformity and fix societal ills. Even with the advancements that the Traveler brought there were simply too many diseases to combat that the teams got distracted destroying individual plagues, outbreaks and super viruses. They started developed the Ghosts early on and those little guys were actually fantastic assistants in the research but they were not able to channel the Light of the Traveler until the war was almost lost and even then Guardians died in the farthest reaches of space as well as on Earth and it almost took too long to revive those who could turn the tide.

Now my division was focused on channeling the power of the sun in new ways and I don't mean using UV radiation to provide power. That was probably the weakest use for solar energy and humanity moved far beyond that shortly after the Traveler arrived in our system. Specifically we were focused on creating small controlled fusion reactions that could be channeled by an individual or a machine to provide power, illumination, healing or any number of other beneficial properties. We started out attempted to use the suits developed by Titans or the rods and staffs of Hunters, but once the Void energy division had a breakthrough with their own pieces of body armor we decided to start from scratch. I called my gloves Sunbreakers because they were going to allow us to hold a fraction of the power of a fusion reaction in our hands. Most of the time that involved blowing up a lot of things as we channeled too much of that energy or did it the wrong way. However on that day as I triple checked the shielding on the gloves diverters and receptors I swear I could feel the power of the sun sitting there in the palm of my hand before I even activated them. Finally I added the last piece of Light forged glassteel to the outer casing, to allow for the channeling of the Travelers Light in the initiation, stabilization and dispersal of the fusion reaction. Limiting the amount of Light being taken in was key to not blowing myself up because we had begun using that as our fuel source. Sliding the glove onto my hand I connected it to the various diagnostic machines, Henry and myself. Henry was the prototype Ghost assigned to my department that most often served as recorder of my errant thoughts and sounding board. When he first joined us I took the time to strip down his outer shell and replace it with one made out of emeralds and gold conducting wire. Henry was also partially responsible for the use of glassteel in the Sunbreakers because, "Who doesn't want to be able to watch the dancing flames of a fully contained fusion reaction on their arms?" All that being said he was a fully developed AI and an extremely reliable research partner but we both made miscalculations that day.

"Systems operating within acceptable parameters, reaction containment shielding showing nominal readouts and all emergency measures are activated. This is going to be so awesome." Henry droned at me as I plugged him in. That was and still is one the biggest limitations of the Ghost hardware, there is simply no room for the vocal processors necessary for inflection and emotion. "If we want to run this test before the boss gets here we have approximately 15 minutes."

Stepping over to the digital readouts I double checked that their readings matched Henry's, "Ok, let's step over to the containment area and fire this puppy up." Carefully lifting my gloved hand I connected the last wire that allowed the Light to power on the systems. "Looks like the power system is cycling properly and there are no leaks from any of the conveyors. Why don't you monitor from outside the containment field while I start the reaction and you can come back in once it doesn't explode." Henry floated away at my request and resealed the area behind him. Pressing the fingers of the glove together I started the fusion reaction and as I drew them apart a small amount of the discharge pooled in my hand. I had heard fire described as a liquid before but this was truly a pool of flame contained in the palm of my hand. The shielding on the fingers seemed to be holding well and the containment field within the gloves mechanisms actually forced the discharge into a roughly spherical shape. As the reaction stabilized in my hand I looked up and found Henry floating on the other side of the glass. I moved to give him the thumbs up with my free hand and the entire building shook in what I came to find out later was the void energy division's first breakthrough in forming a contained void energy reaction. That breakthrough is what cost me my first life. As the rumble echoed through the building and vibrated my lab I let go of the solar discharge. Tumbling towards the ground that little ball of liquid light seemed so serene and soft but I had no idea what would happen if it contacted the ground. In my haste the hand closest to the flame reached out to catch it, but the shielding on that offhand glove couldn't withstand full contact with what amounted to a miniature sun. I stared in horror and mounting pain as the orb clung to my left hand. The heat seemed to draw into the bones of my palm and began spreading up my arm and as the reaction finally dissipated I saw that the miniature sun had burned straight through my hand and left behind a fire that seemed to feed off of the flesh on my bones. Seconds later my entire body was engulfed in that radiant heat and light. Physically I could feel organs shutting down and my breathing had become extremely labored, but in my mind all I could think about was how wonderful it felt to channel the Light with my own body. I drew my last breath in that life as both agony and ecstasy took root and despite all the advances of medicine since that time my hand still has the hole burned into it by that first solar grenade and my body still balances between exquisite agony and painful ecstasy with my every breath.


	2. Chapter 1 - Running for Your Life

**W.A.R.L.O.C.K - Chapter 1 - Running for Your Life**

By: Matthew Yancy

Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny or Bungie or anything like that.

 _Henry floated around the abandoned tunnel entrance in fear. Going out into the wasteland of snow and wrecked cars meant exposing himself not only to possible irradiation but also to death or worse at the hands of the Fallen. However he knew that the signal was out there. He had waited for too long and he knew that if he backed out now he would not survive the years to come. When the Ghosts had banded together some years earlier and bound themselves tighter to the Traveler in order to use His Light to bring the dead and dying back to health they didn't know that it would initiate the Calling. Whether placed there by the Traveler or a necessary piece of their ability to heal they did not know, but in that moment they had all begun to feel it. They found that the process had not worked as well as they hope in some ways, they could not heal everyone of whatever damage they wished, but in others it had worked far beyond their wildest dreams. Ghosts streamed out of the Travelers domain and into the Last City to find the ones who called out to them with their hearts. So many found those that they sought among the living but after the initial euphoria wore off two things became clear to those still without a Guardian to guide and protect. One, many Ghosts were seeking the dead and that meant finding them wherever their essence resided. Second, Guardians had lived and died on many planets in the Milky Way and Ghosts would need to find ways to those planets if they wished to re-connect with the ones they sought._

 _Henry shook himself out of the memories of those first days of the Call and steeled himself for the decision before him. Scanning the area for com activity and energy signatures he bolted out into the bright midday sun. Zipping from rusted out car to burned up wreck he quickly made his way through the apparently abandoned field. The Call rose up louder and louder within his circuitry and he knew that he was only inches away from the one who had been chosen. "At last. It has taken me far too long to find you, but we can make up for that in the days ahead," he hummed aloud to the energy signature he traced. Something tickled the edges of his memory banks as he poured Light into void of his new Guardians being. Far too slowly for his liking the ground began to shimmer and a form coalesced upon the ground. Before he could get a good scan of the newly revived Guardian his passive sensors flared to life and screamed a warning. "By the Light of the Traveler you better be worth this," Henry muttered at the still developing being on the ground, "Because if you're not I am going to make your life as miserable as mine has been on this interminable search." As the final pieces locked into place and the Light brought breath into the lungs of the newcomer Henry finally got a good look at his foundling and despite the danger of the fast approaching Fallen warriors he froze as his processors double and triple checked their readings. He calculated the odds of this occurring and the numbers were rather ridiculous but the facts were presented right there at his proverbial feet. "Well I know it's been a few hundred years Mage but you might want to think about running now and staring about like an idiot later."_

"…Mage but you might want to think about running now and staring about like an idiot later." Those were the first words I heard in my new life, before I came to learn exactly what transpired, and immediately I reached up to swat at Henry as a joke. Opening my eyes I came to the realization that something was off because I definitely wasn't in a hospital and rusted hunks of metal surrounded me. Quickly I leapt to my feet and brushed myself off. In so doing I noticed that I still had the Sunbreaker on my hand but that the rest of my clothes were like nothing I had seen, white and smooth like silk but thick and solid in a way that cloth couldn't possibly maintain on its own. With a start my mind finally caught up to the fact that I was also wearing a helmet that was feeding information to me via the screen. A strange white bar rested at the top of my view with what appeared to be a motion sensor in the corner. Henry had disappeared when I swung at him, which was definitely a new trick, but his voice continued in my ear. "I'm sorry to cut our reunion so short but those red ticks you see on your read-out are enemies advancing on your position."

"Enemies? What the heck are you talking about Henry?" I whispered as I dropped down low and began moving toward the wall. "War was a thing of the past before I was even born, and I have no enemies in the field. Heck the only weapons still around are in museums. Where are we by the way?" I queried. Adrenaline coursing through me had slowed somewhat as the strange yells and screams faded away and I began to take stock of my body as well as my environment. I stopped in the entrance to a large abandoned feeling structure which was highlighted by the HUD with an arrow that directed me to go in deeper still, but it was pitch black inside and I was becoming keenly aware of the strangeness of the entire scenario. My research assistant woke me up in a strange location, wearing technology so far beyond even what I had been researching that I couldn't understand at a glance what material it was made out of and claimed I was being chased by enemies known as the Fallen. "This is some sort of ridiculously elaborate joke isn't it Henry? My experiment was a monumental success but those guys over in Void research want to be sure that I don't get a big head about it right? These clothes look similar to the stuff they make their interns wear around the lab."

Henry flashed into existence in the palm of my hand as I used it to gesture around me, "I don't have time to fully explain here but I swear to you that this is not a joke. You are in serious danger and once the adrenaline begins to wear off you will feel the pain that your mind is suppressing as well. I have no idea why or how I am the one who found you or even why you have come back at all, but you're going to have to trust me until we can get to somewhere safe and that means following the directions that I'm showing you. Is that going to be enough for you to go on?"

Staring intently into the Light at the center of his deep green body I finally let out a sigh and shrugged to him, "That sounds like the most I'm going to get out of you right now, but I swear if this is some sort of practical joke I am having you transferred to the daycare center or the waste disposal area ok?" Moving on as I completed my statement I jogged down through the corridors in the reddish emergency lighting. Coming around a bend I stopped dead in my tracks as the light abruptly fell away and darkness filled the space before me. I vaguely heard Henry say something about turning the lights on as he sped off, but I was focused on something else. Realization hit me as I came around that corner. Nothing here was even remotely similar my memories of Earth. In fact it resembled nothing so much as the decaying remnants of what I had left behind. "This must be what's left of the cosmodrome," I whispered. Many of my friends and colleagues had departed from here to continue their research on the colonies and the skyline looked like a shattered version of the postcard Jake sent after he finished leading the construction of the place.

I had never witnessed true darkness before. In the world after the arrival of the Traveler there were always lights on wherever you could go and it had always seemed somehow wrong to try and banish that. Never having traveled through space I hadn't experienced that form of darkness either. Truly in all my 28 years there had always been light illuminating everything before me. Standing on the edge of that space I stared into the heart of what we all know as the Darkness and I knew there was a decision before and war no matter which way I chose. I could revel in the power of that darkness and take hold of the secrets and power it held close or I could banish it's presence from every area I could find. Almost as if he knew what I was battling or could sense how drawn I was to the unknown of that dark place in that moment Henry flooded the area with light and I saw it. There is no way to truly encapsulate the terror that gripped me as the light revealed what hid in the darkness. Hair stood fully at attention all over my body, a shiver forced its way down my spine while the rest of me stood paralyzed and I stared. This creature fully encapsulated in red and white armor raised its alien gun over its head and screamed at me while waving its other three arms. Perhaps thinking that was not strange enough it shook its head at me almost as if to bring attention to the odd protrusions coming from its head almost like horns. Built like a well-muscled human it seemed built for only one thing, war.

Lights began flashing inside my helmet and the directional light began pointing straight to my right. "The Fallen are still here. I hope you're ready for your first fight, there is a gun there by that crate." Henry yelled as he zoomed back toward my location. "Don't think too hard about what you're seeing right now just pick that weapon up and start running," and so began my mad dash to freedom and the first of many fights for my life. Stumbling in the direction indicated I saw a beat up old rifle leaning against some random crate at the entrance to a hallway so I snatched it up and gave it a good once over to see if I could ascertain how it functioned. Thankfully my aptitude for machinery and the history classes I had to suffer through growing up hadn't been lost in my regeneration. Fumbling with the different mechanisms I managed to eject the clip and put it back in and ready the weapon to fire as I came around a corner with four enemies in the middle of the room. Three of them were smaller two armed versions of that creature from before but the other was almost a twin except that one his "horns" was broken halfway down. I raised the gun and emptied the clip in their general direction as I dove behind another box right beside me. Thanking the Traveler for lazy people who left crates lying around for me to hide behind I shuddered as swirls blue energy balls splashed against the crate, wall and floor all around me. In a lull I managed to peek my head out to see that two of the creatures lay bleeding on the ground but the other two were alive and well including the four armed one. That's also when I noticed that my display had labeled the two armed ones "dregs" and the four armed one a "vandal." There were also highlighted armor density readings that showed red for all of them that seemed to indicate a relatively thin amount of plating covering most of their body. At the time it didn't even register to me that I had someone how gone from never having seen or handled a real gun to not only shooting one but also killing two beings. My visual readout had begun showing what could only be ammunition levels in the bottom right hand corner as soon as I picked up the gun and so revealed to me that my current magazine was empty and I had maybe half of another one left. Ejecting what was in my gun I ran around the crate and threw it down the hallway which only served as a slight distraction as it bounced off the dreg staring at me but was enough to allow me to reach a pillar farther down. Drawing closer gave me both the opportunity to study my enemies up more clearly and improved my chances of being able to hit them with my twelve remaining bullets. Taking a deep breath to steel myself I leaned around the corner and fired off five quick shots at the dregs head of which three connected. Fortunately that was enough to punch through its armored helmet and pierce its skull. The resultant expulsion of light and gore from the hole was completely unexpected and seemed to catch the vandal off-guard as well. That afforded me the opportunity to draw five long steps closer before it managed to aim and fire at me but less than a second after it got its shots off my last seven bullets tore into its chest and face. While it fell dying to the ground the orbs fired at me managed to connect with my lower abdomen and my neck. The first hit merely scored the finish on my armor but the second managed to find a weak point in the armor on my neck and left behind a blistering welt. Pain seared through my mind as I fell to the ground holding the wound but seconds later I felt a warmth well up inside me and light seeped from between my fingers. Quickly feeling with my hand I realized that the pain and damage caused by the bullet were gone but the lingering pain in the rest of my body was not.

No longer able to ignore the pain coursing through my body like a tsunami I struggled to even draw myself onto my knees. "The pain still hasn't faded sir?" my floating companion asked. "I've never heard of anything like this before. How we channel the Travelers light has always been able to restore anyone to perfect health no matter the nature of their death." Shuddering at the thought of being unique in one of the worst ways possible I managed to get my breathing and shaking under control as I rose.

"I think it's safe to say that the damage done to me goes a little deeper than your average mortal wounds. Maybe this oppressive darkness has something to do with it. I almost feel as if my insides are a battleground for good and evil right now. That doesn't really make sense to me but perhaps because my death came about from channeling too much Light there is no way for it to reverse the damage it caused."

Buzzing to himself Henry offered, "Yes that could explain it and who knows there may be others from the same era who suffered similar fates. That would at the least allow us to rule out a few hypotheses." Flitting about the room and myself he scanned different machines and surfaces that began lighting up. "Nothing here is operational enough to provide any useful information on where to find a ship. Let's keep going and see if we can't find something functional." Finally standing tall in the hallway I nodded toward my friend, picked up my gun and took off at a jog. "Perhaps you should try to take things a little slow and easy here. You don't know what other damage could still be present internally." Henry just wanted to be helpful but I smiled grimly to myself as I flexed my left hand. Feeling the hole that had been burned through it just before I died was a reminder to me that I was fallible and no matter how much I knew or learned I could still make mistakes.

Henry brought me some ammo in the form of glowing white boxes that when inserted into my ammo holsters filled the clips inside. Reloading as I ran there were only two corners before I entered a hallway that held four enemies and several laser trip mines. I deduced that they were trip mines as one dreg forgot they were there in its haste to attack me and blew itself up. Thankfully there were rooms that allowed me to bypass these mines and hide from the other attacks. It helped that these dreg creatures seemed to match their names so well. They were definitely the bottom of the barrel in both critical thinking and tactics. As new to warfare as I was I should not have been able to take them out so easily but just a few moments after I encountered them their bodies littered the floor. I continued my dash through the tunnels until I saw an open space up ahead. With no enemies in sight I ran into the room and as a shadow dropped over me I realized I had made huge mistake. I hadn't looked up.

Thankfully my gut instinct to throw my hands up and protect my head had the added effect of unleashing some of the built up solar energy in my glove and blew the falling dreg away. While the plasma ate the corpse of their friend I took the opportunity to rush forward and throw another solar vortex at the next dreg, but the energy hadn't built back up within the glove and so while still powerful it didn't cause this dreg to catch fire. It proved to be enough blast the light out of its eyes though and the body provided some cover from the vandal behind it. With the initial bullets being absorbed by the dead dreg I had time to ready my gun and fire several quick shots off that dropped it to the ground.

Clearing the area hadn't taken more than a minute and there were no sounds of enemies ahead or in pursuit so I slowed down to take in my surroundings. The open area appeared to be some sort of large bay for building, storing or working on large spacecraft, but the dark was so pervasive I couldn't make out much beyond that. What did catch my attention was a crate that appeared to still be sealed. A bright green light shone from the front of it and as I approached Henry floated over and scanned it before offering helpfully, "This appears to be a low quality weapons crate. I'm not sure why the fallen haven't pried it open yet but we should thank them. With a click the light went out and the lid popped open a little bit as if it had been under pressure. Lifting it open I peered inside as Henry shone a light on the contents.

"What is this stub of a weapon? It's got some sort of energy condenser coil here next to the trigger and what appears to be a similar fusion system to what's in my glove. No idea what these nodes are for here at the front though," I gleefully exclaimed. Turning the weapon over in my hand I poked, prodded and pulled at the various components as I puzzled out their meaning. "Well let's fire off a round and see what happens."

Dropping down in front of my face Henry obscured my sight before exclaiming with a sigh, "Or you could just ask the helpful Ghost that's been floating around telling you about everything else." Without waiting for me to respond he pushed on. "That is one of three types of weapons that convert a special type of alloy into ammunition. With the advent of war scientists deemed it expedient to create weaponry that used a minimal number of different types of ammo. They came up with normal, special and heavy ammo that could be stored in a decomposed state and only constituted when it needed to be used or when left lying around. The gunsmith can explain more about how it all works when we get to the Tower. Suffice it to say that this gun will use those green ammo boxes you've seen lying around. Once you pick them up they will sit in your second largest belt pouch there, but it can only hold so much based on what bullets your gun specifically turns the base form into."

Letting the conversation go I hefted the weapon in front of me and proceeded down the next hall with care. Rounding the corner I found what I was beginning to expect lay around most every corner in this Light forsaken hole, enemies. Well more accurately members of an alien race who deemed me a threat and decided to shoot first and ask questions later. Thankfully there was a tunnel to my left that afforded me some safety while I picked them off. Larger numbers only help so much when they can be funneled down. This was also the first practical application of my new weapon which quickly proved to be my favorite. It took some time to charge but fired off bursts of high energy plasma that ripped through the armor of my attackers and would often fell three or more when they grouped up. Making quick work of clearing the room I noticed a dim light glowing in the corner of the area I was hiding in. Normally that would have engendered no notice from me but it was a bluish light coming from the ground where all other light was orange so I moved to check it out.

Drawing near I realized that it was a Ghost but one that had been drained of most of its light. Constantly buzzing something to itself Henry scanned it several times before confirming, "It's still active sir but ever since the Traveler imbued us with His touch we have been connected to our Guardians and either this one's Guardian died or the connection was otherwise severed. He keeps emitting the same condensed burst of information though and I will store it for you to review at a later date. It looks like we are reaching the other side of this building. We aren't far from a ship that should be able to get us to the Tower."

The Ghost disappeared in a flash of Light and I let the matter fall as I proceeded out into a large drainage pipe with a few broken fans lining it. Squeezing through broken chain-link fence several times brought me to a small break in the tunnel that let in a fresh breeze. Surmising that it led outside I cautiously moved down the way to a corner and quickly looked out. No enemies lit up my display and no movement whatsoever disturbed the landscape so I cautiously stepped out into the night air. Immediately the boom of rapidly displaced air heralded the appearance of a massive starship that could have easily held ten thousand humans and all their respective belongings. In retrospect the right move at that point would have been to dive behind the cover of the rusting vehicle to my right that resembled a tank. Instead I stared in awe as several smaller ships broke away and began dropping low at various points near my position. "Not to state the obvious but it would appear Fallen activity in this region has spiked to levels not seen since they finally pushed the last of humanity from the area. We need to get out of here and sooner rather than later," Henry stage whispered in my ear. He had always been a fan of pointing out the obvious but this seemed a little heavy handed even for him. In that moment I realized just how truly disconcerted HE was by finding me and that dead Ghost and having to deal with all these threats in so short a period of time.

Wishing nothing more to be gone from this area myself I drew close to an abandoned mechanics shop that still had shells of vehicles sitting in the repair bays and looked ahead. The arrow on my screen pointed across the mostly open field before me to the exact place where a Fallen dropship was offloading a large number of dregs and a couple of vandals. With little choice left before me I jumped down to where some shipping containers scattered around in front of the mechanics shop. There was the added benefit of a small hill between myself and my destination that allowed me to sprint across the hundred feet of open grass before being spotted by those in my way. As soon as they looked up and shook their guns at me I pulled the fingers on my Sunbreakers apart and brewed a small sun in my hand. As they lowered their weapons to tear me apart I lobbed the solar "grenade" at the front group of five dregs and to our collective shock it exploded as it passed through the chest of the first one. Thankfully their shock was greater than mine and none of them had time to dodge the flames nor were they ready for the explosion to leave behind a burning ball the size of my chest on the ground that quickly incinerated those that survived the first blast.

Somehow the analytical part of my mind had been observing and cataloguing everything I was experiencing and in that moment decided to share an interesting fact. I was a conduit of the Travelers Light. Not only that but every time I killed one of these creatures I felt able to draw in a little more Light. The enemies in that last room had apparently pushed me over a threshold that allowed me to channel that Light into my glove and the fusion reaction it controlled. I deduced that those enemies had somehow drained some portion of the Light of the Traveler and by killing them I drew that Light into myself and strengthened whatever means was being used to sustain my life. Astounded at that realization I rushed forward to take advantage of the element of surprise. I tried to throw another bomb but whenever I pulled my fingers apart the sun formed but dissipated as soon as it left my hand. Again my subconscious made deductions and realized that the Light necessary to power that ability and the solar punch drained some of that Light and took time to recharge. All of these thoughts passed in a rush but distracted me enough that I ran straight through the burning remnants of my grenade before the thought registered that it might not be a good idea to do so. Emerging on the other side unscathed I deemed it a successful test and made the most of the startled faces that greeted me by feeding them the bullets from my normal gun.

Not wanting to waste any time or lose any momentum I charged into the entrance pointed out by my HUD and abruptly felt the sting of an energy weapon discharge in my lower back. Quickly I flipped myself around and threw a wave of burning solar energy at the dreg hiding behind the crate I had just passed. Trying to take advantage of my off balanced spin another dreg came up beside me with a knife that appeared sheathed in lightning and drove it into my leg. Immediately that whole leg went numb and refused to support me but I had enough presence of mind to unleash another wave of solar energy, without the added infusion of Light, which served to throw it off balance long enough for me to hit the ground, recover and put two more bullets into its chest.

I lay there for a moment processing the fact that I almost just died for the second time and to what appeared to be little more than a half trained kid. An adjustment in mindset appeared to be in order. My first few encounters made me cocky and if I knew anything about science it was that getting cocky got people killed. This wasn't science but there was no reason the same principles didn't apply. I needed to rely more on staying away from any immediate physical threats. Since my body appeared to repair itself rather quickly when not being damaged it made sense that I should always leave myself with cover to drop behind and let it do its work. With that in mind I began moving down the hallway to my right. Scanning all around I was able to mentally write a program that would probably allow my suit to map the terrain that I moved through as well and provide me a small view of it on the HUD, but that would have to wait. I entered a small series of control rooms that were empty, though one was half flooded and had bags of bones hanging from the ceiling. I didn't linger too long at the sight of that. There was already too much of a temptation to lose my lunch in the corner. Leaving the last of the control rooms I saw a large open space with eight pillars, four on each side, and a couple of small rooms at the four corners of the room.

What caused me to pause and quickly backtrack was the creature labeled as a "Captain" by my HUD. Not only was it easily twice as large as the vandals I had been facing but its weapon appeared able to output easily three times the energy. Unfortunately there were more protrusions coming out of its helmet, which indicated to me a greater intelligence or at least greater mental abilities, and thicker armor. There were thankfully few of the other enemies and if I could take them out quick I could probably hit the other with a grenade and a few fusion bolts before it could reach me. "Anything that I need to know about these 'Captains' before I try to get through here? Should I just sneak past it?" That directed at Henry, wherever he floated about, were the first words spoken in probably ten minutes.

"This one doesn't have a personal energy shield so be thankful for that but they are still formidable enemies. I'm sure you noted the thicker armor and increased headgear. They allow Captains to take more damage and also to teleport short distances and unleash powerful melee attacks. We cannot sneak past this one because that crashed ship you saw coming through the rear wall is the only functional craft I can detect within a few miles and so we need to be where it is. The headgear allows it to hold me ether, which we can talk about later, and allows it more tactical information about the battlefield and its enemies. They are the leaders in the field and if you can take this one out it should throw the lot of them into enough disarray for us to escape. With a deep shuddering breath I nodded as Henry once again faded away and readied my rifle. Aiming down the cracked glass of the sight afforded me a slightly enhanced view of the battlefield. I quickly put three shots each in the heads of the dregs standing around but the last two had time to get shots off before they went down. That left a couple of vandals, some weird floating machine labeled "shank" and the captain itself. One of the vandals pulled a sparking rod from its pack, twisted the head and threw it straight at me. As it hit the ground it let out a storm of electricity that caused me to alternately seize up and go limp. The shock also froze my armor for a moment which kept me from falling as I recovered but also allowed the vandals, shank and captain to unload on me. I could feel myself reaching the edge of my ability to hold onto life, but I had the presence of mind to jump behind the pillar closest to me. Perhaps sensing that I could recover the vandals and shank advanced on my position. I caught a glimpse of them as I glanced around the side, but my wounds were already sealing up and with that extra surge of energy I whipped around and took out the shank and a vandal before the last vandal reached me and I quickly switched to the defensive. Stumbling backward under the force of its attacks I tried to ready myself for a counter attack. The vandal hit me so hard that it actually threw itself a little off balance as well which gave me the time to throw out my hand in time to scorch it. This one managed to shrug off the damage initially but the lingering fire kept it from coming back so I shot it two times in the chest and it fell.

That left myself and the captain as the only combatants on the field. When I looked back around the pillar, which the vandal had pushed me back behind, the captain was nowhere to be seen. Nervous at the prospect I glanced at the corner of my helmet and saw that there was movement in the opposite corner of the room. Ignoring my previous logic to stay at a distance whenever possible I sprinted across the open middle area of the room. Dodging behind the pillar directly across from where I had been I saw the captain looking straight down at me. Terror gripped me and I instinctively threw the grenade I had been holding. Unfortunately the captain was smart enough to dodge. Fortunately he thought I had better aim than I did and actually spun right into the grenade. Hitting him in the face the explosive went off and left behind its globe of flame but unlike the smaller enemies it seemed barely phased. Staring in surprise I barely had the presence of mind the pull out the fusion rifle and unload a few shots into it. Dancing behind and around the pillars I was able to unleash several shots straight to its mid-section. With a moment to breath I rested my back against the pillar the captain had been standing behind a few moments earlier and glanced around at my now wounded opponent. He was favoring his right leg a little so I knew to focus fire there, but he also appeared to be trying to stall. With that realization the noises around me clarified into the distinct sound of feet pounding the floor and a new flood of enemies came out of the large doorway directly in front of me. As I punched the ground in frustration I dodged back out and around the pillar I had been leaning against and headed straight for the captain. With just enough time for one fusion shot I staggered the captain before I leapt straight up and brought my newly recharged solar punch right down on its face.

Armor plates melted and shattered under the extreme heat being driven down into them and I got a glimpse of a swollen version of a dregs head before the fire caught on its flesh. The flames ate through its body so quickly I flew right through the space it had just occupied and as I hit the ground I caught myself on a rail and spun around it to face the enemies I knew had to be right on my heels. I fired off several rounds from my original rifle before realizing they were all either dematerializing or running back the way they had come. "Looks like you were right about throwing them into disarray. I'm just glad that captain didn't have the presence of mind to punch me before I could get to him," I gasped between heavy breaths. Apparently unlimited healing did not translate to unlimited endurance, but I could still feel myself recovering much more quickly than I felt I had any right to.

"Yes, I'm sure that was one of the captains lower down the chain of command since it was sent to grab this old junker but the loss of any captain will usually break whatever vandals and dregs are directly under its command. We don't have time to talk about this though. Get me over to that ship ASAP." Henry was getting more urgent by the minute and I had no idea what had him so worried but I did as he requested. While he took the few moments necessary to power the ship up I took stock of myself and realized I had crossed another threshold in my connection with the Traveler. I didn't have time to explore it more but I made a mental note of it as the craft lifted up and Henry's voice echoed out from it. "This is going to be a little disconcerting the first few times it happens but it's the only way to get you in here. Readying the transmat. It shouldn't hurt but it might tingle." All sorts of alarms went off in my head at the word "transmat" but before I could sift through all the possible dangers and advances such a thing present the world around me appeared to dissolve. Transmat only take a fraction of a second but that first time it felt like I floated in darkness for centuries. The familiar pain around the hole in my left hand flared in that fraction of time and I became aware of the burning pain throughout my body once again. The world put itself back together piece by piece in front of my eyes but this time I was in the cockpit of the craft looking out. "Don't worry I can fly this thing myself until you get the necessary training," Henry offered but I cut him off with a short laugh before I started flipping switches, pressing buttons and steered the craft out of its crater myself.

"I may have been gone for centuries but I'm still smart enough to figure out the mind of a spacecraft engineer without needing a class on the subject. Now we can head to this tower but before we get there I'm going to need you to fill me in on everything you know. Specifically these advancements in technology. If I am not mistaken this had the look of a Hunter scout vessel and my armor is extremely similar to what we were working on developing for our harsh environment testing labs." Setting the course Henry gave me took only a moment and allowed me to voice my concerns to him. "I want to be as up to date on the state of scientific research as I can be before we reach our destination so let's take the long way if we can." With that our discussion began in earnest and Henry was able to connect to an information mainframe that he could output on the ships various screen. I was determined to be of use in this new environment I had found myself and to figure out why I could suddenly channel Light with my body and with my armor. Then I would get answers about why and how I was brought back and only then would I take the action necessary to save humanity from whatever mess it had managed to get itself into.

 **Next Chapter: Tower Interlude 1**


	3. Chapter 2 - Tower of Light

**W.A.R.L.O.C.K -** **Chapter 2 - Tower of Light**

By: Matthew Yancy

Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny or Bungie or anything like that.

"So it seems obvious to assume that whatever was used to bring me back to life has also enhanced my body and modified my reflexes in a way more suited to a warrior than a scientist. I can only intuit that I have been brought back to be a part of this fight. I need more information!" Henry and I had talked almost the entire trip as I attempted to fill in the gaps in my knowledge both scientifically and historically. Unfortunately much of the historical information was lost in the course of the war but enough was left to convince me of the direness of the situation.

One ray of hope was that science had advanced in many new and exciting ways since I had left and was a joy to catch up on but I had centuries of ground to cover and that would simply take time. An amusing find for me was the continued existence of the Warlock, Hunter and Titan divisions but assuming combat roles rather than research ones. Once Clovis Bray moved their research headquarters out to Mars and left the Tower under government control its influence exploded. Since the majority of people were engineers and/or scientists at that time the different divisions slowly modified their purposes to engulf more and more of the human and Exo populations. Thus they were powerful enough that when the Darkness came and brought war each primary research branch developed a military division. With the creation of the Guardians that naturally turned into the major Warlock, Hunter and Titan training programs.

Finally we began our approach to the City and as Henry spoke with Flight Control I began scanning the read outs to verify that all systems were green and there were no anomalies detected. Thus I was quite distracted when we broke through the bank of low lying clouds and zoomed in to the Guardian's home base. Henry had mentioned the Tower several times over the course of the flight but I had never paused to consider that it would be MY Tower. When I finally looked up I felt my chest get strangely tight at the sight.

The Tower was almost exactly as I remembered it. Older and slightly battle-scarred but still an imposing structure rising up at the head of the city. I had expected nothing from my time to have survived based on the devastating accounts of the war and the relatively few number of those that remained. To see the center of Clovis Brays Warlock division standing tall at the edge of a protective corona of light as the center of the last hope for humanity seemed somehow right but also painfully wrong. That place had given birth to the greatest technological minds and advances of my time and now it was the spearhead of a fight to the death. How could something that had been so staunchly devoted to creation and life become a staging ground for death?

Struggling to reconcile my home with what this place had become I also failed to notice the source of the light that permeated the city. The Traveler provided an obvious demarcation between city and wilderness with its Light extending out to the very edges of the city. Humanity had tamed as many planets as existed in our system before I died and turned every green space into a well maintained garden and every city into a model blend of efficiency and beauty. To see untamed wilderness below me drove home a difficult point. I might find bits and pieces of the world I left behind in the skeletons of what remained but it was all just a hollow reminder of what could never be again.

"I will let you out on the upper deck sir and then take the ship over to Holliday. She's the Guardian's head shipwright and if anyone can get this scrap heap fixed up it will be her. Feel free to explore for a bit until I get back." Henry was different now, more deferential and there were other things that seemed strange. He spoke as if he knew so many things that had happened before and he had obviously made it through the majority of the war but when I asked him directly he avoided answering and managed to quickly guide the subject into other waters. I pondered this as I materialized on the upper deck of the tower and turned to watch the ship zip over to the docking bay.

They had done some serious remodeling of the top levels of the Tower since I had been there last. What had once been three or four top level offices was now a series of sprawling courtyards, a control center and the engineering section which also had a bar and club-like room. I wandered around the area I had initially touched down in. There was an informational kiosk with two robots manning either end, but I had no reason to talk to them. There was a board with another robot standing next to it that my HUD indicated was a bounty board. In one corner there was an area loaded up with weapons and weapon parts and an Exo assembling and disassembling various pieces. Periodically people would approach him and pass over several shining crystals and he would hand a weapon back across to him. Though he didn't have a very large selection of weapons at a time and was constantly repairing, replacing and upgrading them.

He may have just been humoring me but Henry stayed away while I wandered the entire upper level of the complex. On that first mission I had found a strange glowing green orb that Henry told me to pick up and there was a man on that first level who waved me over when he saw me pull it out and begin to examine it. I was able to determine that it was some sort of programmable matter that had a high level of encryption on it to keep random prying eyes from accessing it. Unable to figure out any more I took it over to the strange blue man with red eyes. There were several people running around with this different color of skin and glowing multi-colored eyes and since no one else was freaking out I decided to take it in stride. Their appearance was similar to the accounts I had read of the "Awoken" but it hadn't seemed relevant on the ride over. That was a mistake I would correct as soon as there was time.

"Ah hello. We don't always get new faces around here but you have the look of one. My name is Master Rahool and if you wish I can decrypt that uncommon engram you were looking at earlier." Having placed it in my pocket before walking over I pulled the item back out and hesitantly handed it over to him. He fiddled with it for a few seconds and typed in some commands on the back of his gauntleted hand. With a chuckle of delight he pressed one final button and the object began to morph before my eyes. I was familiar with the idea of matter that could be programmed to take various shapes and designs but this was something a step beyond. There were multiple materials involved in the handgun that formed and there was so much intricacy to the working pieces that had to be accounted for. Quizzing Master Rahool was the obvious recourse for answers and so I began. He was more than willing to converse with me and I found that the weapons and armor of the Guardians were all designed to be able to condense down into this form and on the occasion of a Guardian's death anything lost would automatically revert to this form and based on the complexity of the item it would institute its own encryption. Very few weapons were actually new as the resources required to develop these items were minimal and had to be rationed for the more complex and powerful items.

That was the other thing Master Rahool explained, "The armor and weapons Guardians use is powered by the Light of the Traveler and that Light must be channeled through the Guardian wielding the weapon or wearing the armor. If your connection is not strong enough for a particular piece it will function for little more than covering up your exposed body parts. When you can channel the proper amount of Light however it will come alive. Some pieces will even offer unique enhancements that you can unlock once enough Light has been invested in a piece. Studying the code within the matter engram will allow you to decipher what level of connection with the Traveler is required and what bonuses it will provide. This weapon I just decrypted for instance requires a tier 4 connection with the Traveler which I can sense you have not reached and one random bullet will do an extra amount of damage to your enemies once that ability is unlocked."

The sheer number of possibilities swirled around in my head as I stared at the gun he handed me but my mind caught on one thing. "You sensed my connection to the Traveler? How did you do that? Are you a Guardian too? What are all the possible modifications for guns? What about armor? Is there anything that lets me hold more ammunition?" I continued on in this fashion for a bit. It was more to organize my own thoughts and find out what things I didn't know than to actually get answers. Finally I wound down and Master Rahool had a stunned look on his face that was rather amusing. I chuckled at his countenance before continuing, "Sorry about that Master Rahool. Sometimes I get a little carried away. I really would only like an answer to the first question, how did you sense my level of connection with the Traveler?"

"That really is a question that your mentor should have gone over with you. I assume by your questions and that glove that you are a Warlock. Have you not spoken with Ikora? She is most wise and helpful. Your ghost can show you the way I'm sure." Almost as if on cue Henry came spoke up over the intercom on my headset.

"Are you there Mage? I just finished getting everything squared away with the ship. Holliday says she will have it done in a couple of hours. Let's go meet you mentor now. She can answer many of your questions and tell you what is expected of Guardians."

"Perfect timing Henry. Master Rahool was just telling me much the same thing. I have already explored much of the area so lead on. Let's get things started." With that I shook Master Rahools hand and headed back toward the bounty board. With a start I realized I had removed my helmet but I was still getting directions from a more limited HUD. Surmising it had something to do with my connection to Henry I let it be and followed the arrow that led me down the stairs just before I got to the board. At the bottom of the stairs the path split to go around a wall in the middle of the room and met back up on the other side. Coming around the wall I saw several maintenance and cleaning droids, a vendor bot and a very formidable, fully armored individual standing tall with his arms crossed. His gaze followed me from behind his mask as I walked by. I felt like a college student again going for my first PhD Thesis defense. This person picked me apart with a look and then dismissed me as I passed.

Slightly unnerved by the experience I continued through the room and came out into a large, open central command area. Large windows at the opposite end looked out into the wilderness and control panels were regularly spaced along the walls of the upper level that I stood on. Down a short set of steps there were three individuals standing around a large table having a discussion. There was a tall, broad-shouldered, light blue skinned Awoken in heavy combat armor shaking his head across the table at a lithe and diminutive blue-green Exo in light leather armor who shrugged his shoulders back as the dark skinned human woman in robes pointed to various diagrams laid out before them and seemed to be explaining what they were.

At a glance I could see the evolution in the armor the Awoken wore from the Titan heavy containment suits and the small Exo clearly had on a more advanced version of the Hunter flight suit. The woman, Ikora Rey, was wearing a full set of robes though and to be honest it looked ridiculous. They had obviously taken the Warlock moniker a bit too far. Not that it was too different from the lab coat and safety gloves of my day but they just looked more like a costume than armor. Putting my recriminations aside I stepped down to meet my mentor. As soon as my foot hit the bottom step the Exo turned and threw his hand out at me. I had a brief second of surprise before a knife embedded itself in my chest piece. The shock, more than any actual damage, made me yelp and jump back before readying a solar grenade to defend myself. "Whoa there soldier. I was only testing your reflexes and making sure you were actually what you appeared to be. Don't worry the armor will repair itself once you remove the knife. I'm Cayde-6 by the way. Vanguard Hunter division mentor and you are obviously a new Warlock because any Hunter would have dodged that and a Titan would have at least tried to punch it." He chuckled to himself at that last part giving the Awoken a wink.

Ignoring the jibe he spoke up, "It is always good to find new blood guardian. My name is Commander Zavala and I train Titans to live up to their names. I also oversee the tactical side of the war, Cayde-6 is in charge of intel and Ikora heads up the research and development as well as mentoring all new Warlocks that come through. I will let her fill you in on what you need to know but I am glad that you made it here. Not all the new ones do." With that grim pronouncement he turned back to Cayde-6 and began marking on a map in front of him

Ikora Ray turned to face me directly as he finished and gave me a nod and a tight smile that never reached her eyes. She was beautiful in the same way a panther is beautiful. All sleek and muscular but dark and deadly all at once. You could see in her eyes that she was used to being alone but had grown used to the idea of having people around. They were also ever alert. As she spoke she looked me straight in the eyes but glanced away often enough to catch all the goings on. "I'm glad you could make it here Warlock. I'm sure there are many questions you have and I will do my best to answer them all. First things first however. Welcome to the Guardians." A genuine smile creased her face at that pronouncement and she handed me a writ signed with her name. When we are done here head back the way you came and seek out Banshee-44. He is our current gunsmith and will give you access to the primary weapon of your choice. Now what is your name? I cannot go around simply calling you Guardian all the time now can I?"

"Magnus Richards ma'am, but my friends call me Mage. I really only have one pressing question. How is it that people can tell how connected I am to the Traveler just by looking at me but I cannot do the same?"

Ikora gave me a questioning look when I told her my nickname but apparently was willing to let it slide, "You can sense the connections of others as well. You simply have to be shown how to do it first. Once you have it down it will help you determine enemy strength as well and your Ghost can update your HUD to display what you sense. The Light is a powerful tool and you must always be on the lookout for new and better ways to utilize it. Going by the glove you are wearing and the solar grenade you conjured earlier it would seem you are specializing in the manipulation of solar energy. You have probably already noticed that you can feel thresholds within yourself..."

Ikora continued on explaining how most Warlocks develop similar skills and abilities within the same energy type and even showed me a helpful interface that I could bring up on my wrist computer that showed details on my armor, weapons, solar skills and much more. Once she had explained the interfaces and how certain skills work she told me what the Guardians do. How they seek out threats to the city on many of the planets in the system and go on missions to find new Intel, technology, weapons and more. She also detailed certain missions known as strikes where teams of three Guardians worked together to take down high value enemy targets as her explanation wound down she had one final revelation for me. "Well Magnus those are the basics of what it means to be a guardian. Now shall we meet your team?"


	4. Chapter 3 - The Gang's All Here

**W.A.R.L.O.C.K -** **Chapter 3 - The Gang's All Here**

By: Matthew Yancy

Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny or Bungie or anything like that.

She took me down. Apparently there were apartments or "barracks" for the Guardians on the levels just below the top. Squads were given a suite whenever they formed so that they would have a place to rest between missions and plan before others. Ikora took me down two stories followed by a long corridor that ended at a corner suite, #2247. "Here are your squad quarters Magnus. If your squadmates are not in now they should be in later. You will receive messages about new missions as they become available and you are always able to go out on your own seeking ways to combat the Darkness or just to learn about the situation out there. I will leave you to it. The door is keyed to you and your squadmates so there is no need for keys or access cards if that's what you're used to from your past life. As of now you are a full-fledged Guardian with all of the responsibility and power that go with it. I will usually be found in the same room you initially found me in and I am available to answer any questions you may have."

With that she turned and proceeded back the way we came leaving me alone in the hallway. Well not entirely alone. Some of the rooms had dim sounds reverberating through walls and closed doors and every few minutes I would see a body come or leave. I stared after Ikora Ray for some time marveling at the freedom I had just been given and the fact that they were just trusting me, a complete stranger, with weapons, tools and the freedom to do whatever I wanted.

However this was not the time for introspection so I turned resolutely towards the white diamond-patterned door and strode inside. The door opened into the living room which had a digital display and a holo display. The holo display also doubled as a table in the middle of the room and was surrounded by some decent quality couches and chairs. Immediately to my right was the kitchen with an island in the middle of the room and bar stools lining the outside edge. It was perhaps an early 21st century design which many kitchens had been modeled after in my time, with upgraded appliances obviously. I was slightly amazed at the detail and accuracy of the replication.

Moving through the kitchen the dining room was located at the corner of the building with large floor to ceiling windows facing out over the wilderness. Lightning darted across steel gray clouds, dancing in and out of the cover they provided as low rumbles of thunder chased behind. At the base of the Tower was a forest of ancient trees where my favorite park had once stood. Butting up against the wall that surrounded the city the forest ran its fingers of ivy up the side and in some places came all the way over. Rather than marring the beauty of that pristine ivory wall it only served to enhance its wild and formidable nature.

As I stood there staring out into the forests and hills of that half hidden world I was startled by the subtle outline of a person leaning against the glass just to my left. Not sure what to make of this I examined it out of the corner of my eye. Noting the indentation left by a foot in the carpet I was able to slowly determine the general shape of a person and that the head was pointed directly at me. My researcher's mind wanted to examine and analyze until I figured out exactly how the visual distortion was being maintained, but the mischievous part of my heart decided to get the better of the individual who had interrupted my reverie.

I allowed a small amount of flame to pool in my still gauntleted hand and as a flash of lightning illuminated the sky behind me smoothly turned and lightly tossed the ball to the hidden figure. A muffled curse issued forth from the air and in a moment I found myself face to face with a furious violet skinned man barely old enough to qualify. Face to face wouldn't be the correct phrase though more life knife to neck. He had rolled under my flame and as he became visible smoothly launched himself up and drew a blade that came to rest against my bare neck. Little more than a blur his moves were nonetheless smooth and practiced. With cool blue eyes he stared into my face and quietly asked, "Why?"

Arching my eyebrow at him I chuckled and replied, "I didn't realize I needed an excuse to stare out my own window. I'm sorry if I startled you but invisible people lurking at the edge of my vision tend to bring out the worst in me. Besides I only used a little flame. It went out before it even reached where you had been leaning." At the mention of it being my window his expression grew confused and when I finished talking he stepped back before looking me up and down.

A fierce grin split his face after he examined me. "New squad member? Good. Been almost three months waiting for you. Trip Ra'dan," he added pointing to his chest, "You?" His sudden shift in stance and temperament threw me off for a second but he didn't have a knife pointed at me anymore, in fact the knife had completely disappeared, so I decided to relax.

"Magnus Richards but my friends call me Mage. If we are gonna be squadmates then I suppose you qualify. Do you often greet new people in the Tower with a knife to the throat?" I offered the last as a joke to show there were no hard feelings but the booming female voice emanating from down the hallway must have missed that part.

"You threatened our new squadmate with a knife before even introducing yourself Trip? How many times do I have to tell you that just because you were a scavenger before you died doesn't mean you can continue to act like one." The voice was followed by a large blood red painted Exo with vertical black stripes across both eyes who barreled out of the hallway looking ready to tear Trip apart. "This is completely…." She froze at the sight of my horrified face. "Am I missing something here? Because I feel like I am missing something here."

Not wishing my new acquaintance to come to harm I quickly spoke up. "Honestly ma'am I threw a small fireball at him first so it wasn't an entirely unwarranted threat. Besides that's all cleared up now. I'm Magnus Richards your new fireteam member but my friends call me Mage. It's a pleasure to meet you Miss..."

Maintaining her slightly quizzical stare she replied, "Mrs. I was Integrated before I died and I still get bits and pieces from my connection with him so I hold out hope. After all he may come back as a Guardian as well." Shaking off her melancholy her face brightened as she moved on "I am Tac-791, just Tac for short. You have met Trip our other squadmate and I assume it was Ikora who led you here so you are probably up to date. I am a Titan, Defender class and Trip is a Hunter, Bladedancer class. You are a Warlock Sunsinger, yes? The fireball is a dead giveaway of course. Well I suppose we are ready to tackle more intense missions now, yes? Do you have everything you need or do we need to gather supplies?" It took me a moment to register that her pause was for a response and not just for breath so my reaction time was just slow enough to make things awkward.

"Oh you want me to answer that one, yes sorry. I'm not sure what I need. I have weapons, armor and a ship, but I don't know what kind of shape my ship is in now. I also have something Ikora told me to give to the gunsmith to requisition a weapon." I looked at the other two to see if that was enough and they immediately began hustling about picking up weapons, armor pieces and various items I didn't recognize. While they took the time to gather everything up I examined the rest of the apartment. The hallway Tac had come down ran along the floor to ceiling windows and down the length of the apartment. There were three rooms and a personal hygiene room branching off of it. I took a moment to go over my room. It was pretty spartan with one bed big enough for a single person, a closet and a desk with a digital access station. The station allowed access to a digital storage matrix called "The Vault" and had a handy guide that also mentioned there were access kiosks on the top floor of the Tower as well. There were also technology and information databases that could be downloaded for a fee.

My squadmates were ready and waiting when I came out. As soon as he saw me Trip walked out the door and marched down to the elevators. Tac and I walked behind him at a less hurried pace as she filled me in on their tactics. "I specialize primarily in attacks from range. I use a scout rifle, sniper rifle and rocket launcher. My class super is called Ward of Light and allows me to manipulate stored Light energy to create an impenetrable dome of Light. We can move in and out and so can enemies but bullets and other forms of attack cannot. I'm focusing on developing my ability to channel Light through the barrier back into any Guardian that steps into it granting them different abilities."

We continued up to the top landing of the Tower as Tac detailed the abilities of her class and of Trips including the weapons that he favored, assault rifle, shotgun and machine gun. Henry had been silent and invisible since telling me to meet Ikora and I was beginning to get a little worried about him. The others hadn't mentioned having Ghosts either so to make myself feel a little better I tried to casually bring them up. Waiting for a pause in her torrent of information and battle stories I jumped in, "Do you think our abilities are granted by our Ghosts in a symbiotic manner or do you think it's more like they are just a conduit for the Light?" Apparently used to such interruptions Tac paused to consider my question for only a moment.

"Well according to Lydia they are only needed for the first spark to create the connection between ourselves and the Traveler, but there are stories." Her faceplates drew down and darkness washed over her face as she continued. "Stories of Ghosts whose Guardians have their connection severed and can no longer communicate or even function anymore. I've never experienced that but I have found a large number of dormant ghosts who give off a few micro bursts of information before they return to the Travelers embrace." Switching gears she continued, "If you're curious why you don't see them much in the Tower it's because they tend to spend their time communing with each other and the Traveler in some way and they hate doing anything else when they are here." We approached the Gunsmith and an impatient Trip who immediately turned to address the Exo behind the counter.

"New guy with a writ of requisition. Basic stuff, he's only tier three." Trip motioned for me to hand over the writ as he spoke. The exo shook its head at Trips shortness but accepted the writ before laying out four weapons for me to choose from. Ikora had helped me unlock some of the functionality of my systems and one of them showed me the models, weapons types and different useful technical specifications for each weapon. After looking them over and considering the versatility offered by our squad having diverse specialities I chose the hand cannon.

"That's a good choice guardian. You deal maximum damage to the weak points in enemy armor with this. The name's Banshee-44 Tower gunsmith. I sell and modify weapons along with a selection of ammo synthesis devices. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of one another." He seemed like a nice enough fellow, even if a little distracted.

"Thanks for the weapon sir, I'm sure it will be great help in the fight." Banshee nodded as if that was the expected response before turning back to his work on various weapons he had behind his bench. This time it was Tac who led us away in a hurry. A slight spring in her step and the smile on her face echoing her desire to get things moving. Our next stop was ship maintenance and one Engineer Holliday who would know whether we could get moving or not. Picking up my pace to keep up with the others I barely got a chance to stare at the plethora of ships zooming in and out of the Tower flight bay. We made our way down a short walkway that butted up against the Tower on my left and empty space on my right. The walkway connected to a large platform with an armory directly to our right beside a set of stairs that led up to another workspace. There were stairs that led down to the left and down straight ahead but Tac led us to the workspace on the second level.

Gleaming metal engine parts lay in various stages of disrepair around a couple of workbenches behind which stood a blonde human female piecing back together an accelerator coil. She barely glanced up at us before returning to her work. After another few seconds she adjusted a final component and set the coil down. "Amanda Holliday at your service. I know these other two," she said waving at my squadmates, "But I don't believe we have had the pleasure." Her hand took mine in a grip of iron and she gave a smile before turning back to her workbench. "Are you the one who brought in that battered old freighter from the Russian cosmodrome? I'm amazed you made it back to in that thing but we managed to get her into pretty good condition for you. Though you should know it's only a pond jumper. Not meant to go interplanetary. You'll need to find a warp drive that fits it and your best bet is back where you found the ship."

"Really? Well I think the location was saved to the nav-computer so that shouldn't be too hard to find. Any ideas what a warp drive for this thing would look like?" I asked.

"I can upload the specs to your Ghost so it knows what to look for. The ship itself is located over in bay 32 pad 7 which will be yours for the duration of your time with us. Now I have literal tons of other ships to get space worthy so unless there is something else." She let the last part trail off as she returned to her accelerator coil.

"No nothing else. Thank you so much for your time. Who knows maybe I will be lucky enough to find a better ship out there for you to fix up." I joked as we turned to locate our ships. Holliday appeared to not even hear me. She had immediately become enthralled with her work. "Well guys looks like I need to make my way back to Russia. Can y'all help me out finding a warp drive or do you have other plans?" While I was speaking Trip lifted his hand up and his Ghost materialized on top of it.

"Mary our destination is Russia. Take me to the ship." I assumed Mary was the name of his Ghost and as he disappeared I noticed Tac doing the same with her Ghost. Not sure how to get Henry's attention I lifted my hand, palm up, just like Trip had and Henry appeared in front of me.

"You're learning quickly Mage that is good to see. I will serve largely as a relay for mission details, codebreaker for any locks we come across and of course I will provide any information I can that you ask for. You may have noticed I also update the HUD with relevant information about the mission, your weapons and if you have taken any damage. I can also remotely access the ship systems and teleport you to it from any location. Now lets go get that warp drive." Excitement pumped through my system as we zoomed out of the Tower and I knew this be the first of many adventures alongside these friends.


	5. Chapter 4 - Firefight, Fallen and Flame

**W.A.R.L.O.C.K - Chapter 4 - Firefight, Fallen and Flame**

By: Matthew Yancy

Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny or Bungie or anything like that.

Flying around the Cosmodrome afforded us an excellent working knowledge of the area's general landscape. The industrial wasteland that was one of Earth's major launching points for colonization was at once a testament to the heights of our "Golden Age" and a harrowing reminder of the might of our enemies. After half an hour of reconnaissance we found an area sparsely populated by the enemy that was very close to a downed craft and where I originally found my ship. Immediately upon landing Trip dropped into a low crouch and brought his rifle up while assessing the view from the ground. Tac drew her sniper rifle and began scanning the few enemies we could see in the distance and Henry provided intel.

"Looks like relatively few Fallen have congregated in this location. I don't detect any large concentrations of Ether, that's their energy and food source, so most likely no high ranking individuals at the moment. There's a downed craft just to the northwest, maybe a hundred and fifty yards that's probably the best place to start." With a grunt and a strange wave of his hand Trip acknowledged the little ghost before disappearing from sight. I could see the shimmer of his outline as he raced toward the location our HUD indicated.

"It's best to follow him quickly, otherwise he will dive into the closest group of enemies alone and probably be overwhelmed. Death may not be permanent anymore but I'm convinced it still does psychological damage every time." Tac explained as she slowly jogged after our hasty squadmate. "Ready your weapon soldier. The enemy could be anywhere at this point." I could just see the edge of a spacecraft in the direction we were heading and there were no enemies readily visible, but I took her at her word and readied my hand cannon as we advanced. Instead of moving straight to the marker we made our way to a lone warehouse-like building about halfway to the ship.

"Is he really going to be in that much danger by himself? I mean I made it through this area alone, without any prior fighting experience and I didn't find any of these "Fallen" to be much trouble. Even the one labeled a "Captain" was a relatively minor inconvenience." Tac didn't reply immediately as she edged down the back wall of the warehouse. In fact she made barely any noise at all until she gave the all clear.

"You were lucky then. While it may be true that a low-ranking dreg, vandal or even a captain isn't much of a threat to a lone Guardian out here in the wastes that doesn't always apply. Just as we have different levels of connection to the Traveler so they have different levels of power. So one dreg is not always equal to the next. My ghost, Lydia, tells me that the Fallen rely on something known as "ether" to determine both where they fit in the hierarchy and what rank they hold. You see a dreg could become a vandal, or a vandal a captain and sometimes you can't tell how close they are to advancement so it's always best to be wary." All of this was delivered at a quiet, rapid fire pace as we surveyed the crash site. With no enemies in sight we watched as Trip quickly advanced on the wreck and were caught completely off guard when a four-armed vandal jumped out from behind the ship to pistol-whip him in the back of the head.

Tac immediately popped off a shot from her sniper rifle that embedded itself in the chest of the vandal and knocked it away from Trip giving him the time he needed to recover his focus. I sprinted out from cover with my fusion rifle now at the ready to provide the finishing blow. The burst of energy from my gun lost too much power before hitting the vandal but was still enough to keep him off balance. I dropped the rifle as I ran and pulled out my hand cannon just in time to witness Tac land another shot in center mass to finish it off. Trip had just managed to turn and face his assailant when it dropped dead at his feet and I was afforded the perfect view of a dreg about to repeat the ambush. I was ready this time and was able to get two shots over Trips shoulder before the dreg followed through with its threat. I let out a sigh as the rush of battle faded but there was one enemy left as Trip rushed toward me, knocked me down and fired a shotgun round into one of the floating red robots called Shanks. Those disk shaped enemies were about a three feet in circumference and maybe six inches tall and looked like miniature versions of the Fallen spacecraft I had seen and they could do some serious damage when they grouped up. For the first time in that fight I looked up at my little motion detector and noted that it was silent. That would have been smart to use earlier. Trip jumped up on top of the smoldering wreck and apparently decided it was a good time for a nap because he proceeded to lay out on the canopy and fake snore over the coms. He was so all over the place that I couldn't really get a read on his personality but it wasn't the time to think about it so I let Henry out near the cockpit so he could sift through the systems information to see if there was anything useful.

Hank liked to talk while he worked so as he floated around the ruined exo-structure of the ship he muttered over the coms, "Wow there's barely anything left of the primary computer systems. It looks like the scavengers have been picking over this wreck for a while now. There aren't any logs in the primary computer core anyways. Mage this is far more advanced than anything you probably remember working with so I will upload the schematics to your computer for you to look at later. Here we go, the secondary files haven't been nearly as damaged as the primary and one of the guardians liked to keep track of what was going on here. Looks like they were doing research on the data left behind in the substructure of that building behind us. They've probably already moved on but we may be able to get some information from what they got running down there." As soon as we had an objective Trip smoothly slid of the ruined spacecraft and stalked toward the warehouse we had noticed initially. It was maybe 75 yards east of the grounded craft and there was a much smaller outbuilding maybe 15 yards closer that showed no signs of enemies. With a wave to Tac we met up there and did a little surveillance. Seven or eight enemies were grouped up around the entrance to the warehouse and had apparently heard our little scuffle earlier because they were on full alert. While we couldn't silently get rid of so many enemies on our own we could get the drop on them which would probably be enough. After sketching out a quick plan Tac slid around to the north side of our little shed and got ready. Her first shot took one of the four vandals in the head. Immediately the three remaining vandals dove behind cover and the four dregs charged her. Unfortunately for them that was more or less our plan. For dramatic effect I flared my coat out behind me and I stepped around the opposite side of the building and took two dregs out with quick head shots.

Not to be outdone Trip chose that same moment to dive of the roof toward the remaining two dregs landing on one and unloading a shotgun round into the other. He hit the ground, rolled and came up sprinting toward one of the remaining vandals. A loud pop and a spray of light indicated Tac getting off a second successful shot. The knife Trip had left behind in the dreg he fell on faded from existence only to reappear in his hand as he bore down on the next to last vandal. A quick shotgun blast and a knife in the head later and he was done. I had not been idle during this exchange. Switching to my fusion rifle and charging it up I rounded the corner on the last vandal just in time feel the sting of multiple plasma shots and let off a shot full in the offending vandals face. Blown back by the power of the close up shot the dead vandal landed by Tacs feet as she jumped over the rusted out remains of a car to deal with any remaining enemies. Seeing none close by she relaxed and nodded to the two of us while pointing to the open warehouse. "Shall we gentlemen?" She asked as if inviting us to enter some high class party. Chuckling at the image I followed closely behind Trip as he located the stairs and took us down.

Everything in the Cosmodrome screamed of neglect and decay from the outside and for the first few steps down into darkness the basement seemed the same. Only the stairs never swayed or creaked. There was no dust piling up on every surface. This place only looked dead on the outside and I was afraid that meant our enemies were here in far greater numbers than we initially expected. Fortunately we met no further resistance at the foot of the stairs but we did a quick sweep during which we found some sort of hermetically sealed container that had a strange semi-solid silvery metal that Tac referred to as spinmetal, a few shiny bluish fragments of something that turned out to be glimmer, the currency, and a shotgun that Trip immediately disassembled for parts.

That room fully scouted we took the only path that wasn't sealed shut into a dark hallway that took an abrupt left turn fifteen feet down. After the turn we were treated to a soft blue light shining through a doorway on the right which we immediately walked through and stumbled right into a group of enemies. Two shots to the chest snapped me out of my surprise quickly. My allies had been far less surprised and managed to take out a dreg before I recovered. Unfortunately I had ample opportunity to make up for my lapse as I fired three rounds into the shank and the others unloaded on the vandal. Vandal down I paused to reload lamenting the lack of space in the chamber for more than three bullets. I definitely needed a better gun. My team reloaded as well while we approached the computers which were producing the glow we noticed earlier. This time Tac called her ghost to decrypt the information. Almost immediately a map popped up showing the area of the Cosmodrome with a blinking red dot. "There you go Tac. The signature coming from that room matches almost exactly the kind of warp drive we are looking for, but Fallen activity seems to be increasing as well. They've noticed we are here."

Surprisingly Trip chose to respond to this one, "Well then we get a little more target practice and grow our connection to the Traveler at the same time. Sounds like a win, win." Tac shook her head at the brash statement but didn't comment. Instead she purposefully strode back out the door we came in, leaving Trip and myself to hustle after her. No more enemies presented themselves as we retraced our steps but as we re-entered the ground floor of the building we heard the dull roar of large engines and slowed down enough to see several more enemies drop from a ship that then sped off into the distance. These enemies had the same amount of ether as the others according to my readouts and there weren't as many of them as before, but there were fifty yards of open space between us and them and only Tac was capable of engaging at that distance with any accuracy. So she did. Picking off the lone vandal first she quickly took out one of three dregs before they were able to pinpoint her location. That left two dregs who dove behind cover and started making their way toward us in bursts from broken vehicle to empty container and a couple shanks that zoomed in a zigzag fashion to engage her. Unfortunately for them Trip decided to reveal himself at just the right time to blow one shank out of the sky with a shotgun volley and that distracted the other enough for me to pop off two shots into its metallic chassis. Tac got off one more shot to scorch the armor of one of the approaching dregs before switching to her scout rifle and exclaiming, "No more easy kills until we find more special ammo." Trip obviously didn't mind that particular difficulty as he unloaded on the wounded dreg with his rifle and Tac and I tag teamed the final one. Trip had just enough time to kill his foe and drop a couple shots on ours before needing to reload.

That put us in the clear for the moment as we made our way inside the main structure of this portion of the Cosmodrome. Strangely unlike the basement we had just cleared everything still looked fairly destroyed in this upper level of the area. Apparently a lot more damage had been done to surface level structures than those below ground. We continued on inside anyway when my comm started beeping slowly but insistently. Henry appeared with the wave of a hand and I asked, "Is anyone else hearing this ping? Henry can you track where it's coming from?" My squad nodded in the affirmative to my question and Henry began floating around the room while scanning every surface. Sure enough a few moments later he stopped in front of an especially large pile of garbage and said, "The signal is coming from this general area. Looks like a Guardians cache should I open it up?" At my nod he froze in midair for a few seconds before the area sort of blurred before revealing a shiny metal cases like we had seen before. This one contained far more glimmer and a higher class piece of armor that fit me just right.

With that detour resolved we moved through the next room which had a huge crater that looked as if someone had set off a bomb in the middle of the room that was focused completely downward. Edging around the crater appeared to be my only option while the other two were able to clear the gap with strange jump techniques. Trip was able to create a pool of Light under his feet that pushed him up in a second jump and Tac was able to focus Light behind and slightly underneath herself to launch forward. Once I joined them on the other side we slowly crept down the stairs to what appeared to be another part of a warehouse with rusted metal doors that were supposed to slide up and down. One of these doors had either rusted away or been blown to pieces but either way it led us to a large, open columned area. Before we could step inside my motion sensors started lighting up like a christmas tree and we all froze. "Looks like enemies in this next area and does anyone else feel like there is some sort of increased pressure here? Almost like the air is thicker or something?"

"That's the Darkness." Trip whispered to me as he edged toward the open doorway. "When there are enough enemies or just one that is strong enough the Darkness sort of manifests itself like this. It means our connection to the Traveler is severely weakened and if we aren't careful we could lose that connection entirely. Return to the dust from whence we came." That last part sounded a bit rehearsed or like he was repeating something from memory that he had been told before. All in all I was too busy staring to register what he said at first. Tac seemed just as taken aback as I at the relative torrent of words that Trip had spoken.

She shook the surprise off more quickly and added, "That's one theory at least. All we know is that if you go down in a zone like this your ghost can't bring you back again unless it leaves the area and it can't become incorporeal until your body returns. The Warlock Order might know why but I've never bothered to ask."

"Makes a certain amount of sense I suppose. Otherwise all those fighters we saw at the Tower would have been able to wipe the enemy out long before this." I slowly looked around the corner through the broken opening and found myself staring out into an eerily familiar scene. I stare in silence for a couple of heartbeats before Henry helpfully snapped me out of it.

"Mage this looks like the exact location we got your current craft from. Perhaps one of the Fallen removed the warp drive before we found it. They were giving it a thorough working over before we stumbled onto them. In fact the energy readings that we registered on that old computer point straight ahead of us. Perhaps through that large hole in the wall." As he finished speaking Trip apparently decided that was all the information he needed so he burst into action. With some sort of spiky grenade he led the charge into the room and managed to catch them all flat-footed. Taking out three enemies in short order we made quick work of the remaining dregs and vandals.

As the last enemy fell, ether leaking from its wounds, Tac rounded Trip and harshly whispered, "What kind of idiotic move was that? You had no idea how many enemies were here or how strong they would be. That could have been a disaster. We're lucky there weren't more of them. I'm reporting you to the Vanguard as soon as this mission is over."

"Oh please you know that Cayde-6 will probably…" Trip cut off suddenly as a huge fallen warrior came out of the hole in the wall behind Tac. Easily three times as tall as the dregs we had been picking off with ease and his ghost Mary spoke up.

"That's the one that has the warp drive we need. Looks like an Archon. All intel points to it being Riksis, the Archon of the House of Devils. It's the weakest house but we aren't exactly the strongest guardians and if he has the drive I propose a tactical retreat and a re-thinking of our current tactics." Molten metal flew from the Archon's shrapnel launcher as we quickly took Mary's advice and sprinted behind the pillars. Harsh laughter poured from the Archons metal covered head and he shouted some fallen gibberish at us while we took cover. We all three looked at each other and silently came to the agreement that the Archon had to die. With no time to waste Tac rolled out from behind her pillar toward me, throwing her arms out wide as she regained her feet. Immediately a bluish purple dome of energy sprang up around her and stopped the flood of bullets that rained from the enemies arrayed against us. In the few seconds it had taken us to retreat and then decide to fight a group of vandals and shanks had flooded out of the broken wall that the Archon had come out of. Tac's dome distracted them all long enough for Trip to wreathe himself in some sort of electrical current, stow his gun and pull out two long knives. Killing all those enemies with a knife, even two, seemed like a rather ridiculous plan but perhaps the lightning was more impressive than it seemed at first. I readied my hand cannon anyway and stepped out from behind my cover in time to see Trip blow through a handful of enemies that had tried to flank us.

Immediately in front of me a shank rose up to bar my path followed by three identical floating forms. Their torrent of first was enough to drop my shields rapidly but they each fell to a single shot from my weapon. I barely had time to dodge back behind the concrete before tracking plasma bolts slammed into the spot my unshielded body had just filled. As my shields slowly recharged I looked over to find that whatever trick had allowed Trip to take out so many enemies came at the cost of trapping him right in the middle of all of them. Thankfully Tac had the presence of mind to throw out some sort of grenade that created a wall of flickering purple energy between the majority of our enemies and the drained hunter. The move reminded me of my own ability to wreak havoc and I immediately called up a flaming grenade of my own that I threw into the tangle of bodies that still surrounded him. Apparently the fallen were familiar with such a device because they immediately retreated from their afflicted companion and said companion dove toward Trip in a sort of suicide push. Trip fell to the ground and his foot lashed out to trip the vandal and a follow up kick threw it into the backs of it's retreating friends. Flames exploded out of from the unfortunate creature and consumed it and those it had barreled into.

As the immediate danger to our friend faded both Tac and I became aware that the biggest threat, the Archon, was only a step away from our protective forcefield and closing fast. Tac responded by backpedaling out the other side of the field and quickly fled into an adjacent room that the Archon was far too large to fit through easily. Unfortunately that left me alone to face it's wrath and fear quickly replaced any thoughts of fighting that I had. I froze. Some people say that time always slows down as soon as they enter a fight, like everything before it is a fast-paced dream but the fight is true reality. I am not one of those people. For me a fight is heart-pounding fear and cold sweats. I do not relish the fight and that moment, standing mere feet away from my doom was when I realized it.

Instead of bringing it's glowing orange weapon to bear the Archon's mouth curled back in what could only be a sneer and in agonizingly slow fashion raised it's foot and smashed the ground. Shockwaves of sound and energy rippled away from that epicenter of destruction and time rapidly returned to normal speed as my second death approached in the form of an overpowered stomp. All that saved me from what would have undoubtedly been a painful experience was the pain my own transformation had left behind. Pain that permeated my body ratcheted up a notch and shook me from my reverie and I did the only thing I had time to do. I jumped backwards. A foolish plan under any other circumstance that would have undoubtedly still ended in my untimely second demise if it were not for the Light and flame that surrounded me in that instance. Launching me higher than I would have been able to go unassisted, helping me clear the shockwave and propelling me away from my large foe.

Purple flicking tongues of void energy died out between Trip and the remaining smaller enemies but shotgun at the ready he made quick work of three before switching to his rifle and lighting up the final two shanks. Still floating away from the Archon I surveyed the battlefield. Fallen bodies, drained of ether, lay all around the warehouse floor and only a couple of enemies remained besides our overly large attacker. My view was brief as the energy that propelled me up and away died out, unceremoniously dropping me to the floor. Thankfully the enhanced reflexes provided by my reanimation kept me from making a fool of myself but now I was backed up against the wall fifteen yards from a giant, enraged, ether-hoarding purveyor of death. Head swinging in my direction the Archon fixed me with what could only be described as a malevolent stare, particularly considering the two rows of glowing orange eyes, four on each side of it's face. Two steps into a charge that I may or may not have been able to dodge the loud report of several quick shots echoed from the doorway that Tac had dodged into as she unloaded her semi-automatic scout rifle right into its head. Sparks flew from the metal surrounding the enemy's head and my HUD indicated that there was decent amount of damage done to the structural integrity of said helmet. "Thanks Tac! I really needed that one." I yelled out as the Archon quickly turned and let off a volley in her direction.

"No problem Mage. I propose we finish it off now though before anymore reinforcements arrive," she responded from her cover beside the doorway. As if on cue Trip downed the last of the vandals that were bothering us and turned to unload on the Riksis. With a yell to assist my brain in overcoming my fear I switched to my fusion rifle and fired my last two shots point-blank into it's back. Having turned to face Trip who was out in the open running toward it Riksis was unprepared assault but the close proximity required for my weapon to do damage allowed him the time for another ground stomp that I avoided most of but still managed to knock my shields out for the second time this fight. Unfortunately for us a small number of reinforcements chose that exact moment to arrive. While my motion sensor started pinging off of the enemies coming up on my right I shook my head to reorient myself. That was all the time the lead vandal needed to let off a full volley of tracking plasma bolts that lanced into my unshielded side. Low quality armor crumpled under the onslaught and I felt the Light being forcibly drawn out of me as the last two projectiles hit unprotected flesh. Without the Light I needed to animate myself I felt my limbs shutting down and barely had time to throw a solar-energy laden punch that burned up the offending vandal before I fell to the ground and my body started to, as Trip so poetically put it, "return to the dust from whence we came." Literally I felt my body crumbling with me still inside and the fear I had felt the entire fight rocketed up to new heights.

With that fear I became hyper aware of everything going on around and inside of me. I discovered an untapped reserve of Light that I had not noticed before and as I mentally reached out to access it a spark leapt from it to connect with the rest of my being and the energy flooded my body. Pain flared up greater than ever before as solar energy coursed through my veins and flooded out from the very pores of my skin, filling the air around me. Orange and red energy tainted my vision, casting everything in an eerie, fire-tinged light. Power necessary to create my fusion grenades and to scorch my enemies with my fist quickly built up inside of me and would do untold damage if I did not unleash it upon my foes. A primal yell tore loose from my throat as I threw myself up from the ground. My gauntleted hand formed pools of solid energy that I hurled at the unsuspecting Archon, while my unprotected fist remained wrapped in fire that consumed the dregs that tried to put me back down. Four grenades flew and three latched on to their target while the fourth shot over it's head and stuck to the back wall, too far away to do any real damage. Tac barreled out the other door to her temporary hiding place and helped pick off the two vandals that were left while the Archon hunched in on itself to mitigate the damage that rocked it's body from my flurry of grenades. The third grenade went off, inches below it's helmet and blasted the protective cover off. "Quick," I yelled as the last of the Light that had suffused my body leaked out, "It's helmet is gone! Aim for it's head." Shields still offline from the enemy fire I had taken after my revival I turned and took my own advice. Four rapid shots from my hand-cannon lanced into the unprotected meat of the Archon's head while Tac unloaded shot after shot from her scout rifle and Trip let out a flurry of bullets from his automatic. Staggering under the fury of the attack the last of the fire in it's eyes fade and with a forceful explosion gaseous ether surged out of it's head and the Archon dropped dead at our feet.

Seeing their commander fall the second wave of reinforcements that arrived right at that moment quickly turned tail and ran back into their tunnels. Trip walked around the room, taking particular care to step on small white and green glowing boxes on the ground that disappeared on contact. That explanation would have to wait for later though as Henry leapt into action. "This is it Mage. Looks like Riksis did manage to take the warp drive from this ship. He was probably hoping to barter it to another Fallen House or somehow use it to his advantage. Good thing we got it back. It will let us travel where we need to at will and keeps a potentially dangerous tool out of enemy hands. Light had suffused both my teammates and myself with each kill but the death of the Archon had unleashed the largest torrent yet and I could feel, and my HUD agreed, that each of us had reach a new threshold. Too tired from the fight and the fear that had coursed through me I fell to the ground beside the oddly deflated form of Riksis as Tac picked up and decrypted an engram that resolved into a new sniper rifle for her another that turned into a hand cannon she threw to me. "I'll bring the ships in now and we can return to the Tower," Henry offered as I continued to catch my breath. With a nod from me he disappeared again and as the roar of spacecraft filled the air and my body began to dematerialize the last thing I saw was a belt of skulls on the Archon's waist...human skulls.


	6. Chapter 5 - The Road Ahead

**W.A.R.L.O.C.K - Chapter 5 - Dealing with the Consequences**

By: Matthew Yancy

Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny or Bungie or anything like that.

Flying back to the Tower afforded plenty of time for introspection. Perhaps too much time if I was being honest. Here I had just flown into the wasteland where a group of aliens make their home, shot them all to hell, stole their stuff and never even once questioned why or if there was a better way. Granted I didn't speak their language but that doesn't mean that no one does or that I couldn't have found some way to communicate with them. Seeing the belt of human skulls that the Archon had worn helped in some ways, but in others it was worse. I was not a military man. Taking orders without question and without hesitation was not my way. As a scientist my job was to ask questions and figure out how to make things work in the best way possible. Slaughtering upwards of thirty aliens just because they had something I was told I needed did not seem like the best way.

Unfortunately I had no idea who to direct my questions to and I had read the limited histories available in the Tower archives that amounted to, "These guys appeared and started killing us for no reason so now we fight back and kill them for no reason." That didn't sit well but none of them had been willing to try and talk it out when they saw me either so there was a possible grain of truth in that storyline. For now the evidence agreed with the story I had been given so I decided to go along with it until new evidence appeared to dictate a reassessment.

Moral quandary dealt with for the moment I turned my thoughts back toward the future. We needed a plan if we were going to be effect in the galaxy at large and in order to have a plan we needed to know what the goals were. "Ok guys when we land I think we need to find someone who is in charge and get a rundown of what our overall mission is and how they expect us to fit into that mission. We've got a lot of aces up our sleeves with these powers, but clearly the enemy has all the advantage in terms of numbers. We aren't going to be effective if we just run around doing random missions. Who should we talk to?" I was hoping that since Tac and Trip had been around so much longer than I that they would know who the movers and shakers of the towers were. Thankfully they proved me right or I would have had to blindly wander about asking odd questions to perfect strangers, well I probably would have gone to Ikora anyway since she seemed to know what was going on before but who knows.

"Is he being serious right now?" Trip asked Tac over the intercom before deciding to ask me directly, "Are you being serious right now? Who put you in charge Ace?"

"Yes well, while that could have been better worded it does bring up an excellent question. Who is going to be in charge of our unit? We can't run future ops the way that last one went. We were far too lucky with our haphazard approach and I would rather not find myself in the midst of an even more dangerous situation with no plan and no backup," Tac seemed less put out by my attempt to take charge but still unsure of my capabilities. Well I had become used to the concept of selling my strengths to teams I was put in charge of and I was confident I could do the same here.

Rolling my shoulders and cracking my knuckles to pump myself up I got ready to deliver my winning address when we topped the last mountain and the Tower came in sight. Deflated I changed what I was planning to say, "Looks like we will have to shelve this conversation for the moment. We will have some time while the shipwright gets my warp drive installed." 

"I need my reward ASAP. That means proving to the Vanguard that we took out that Archon and getting the bounty. They'll want all of us there." Trip didn't seem to mind taking charge himself and I was beginning to dread a confrontation between us. Thankfully Tac was again the voice of reason.

"Yes they will also be able to tell us if our actions managed to shake anything else loose that needs to be chased down. We will be able to upgrade our armor and weapons as well if necessary. Some older guardians recommend waiting on that until you can use the best stuff on the market. It won't take many more missions like that last one before we could." We coasted into the hangar as she finished her statement and our ghosts transported us out to the Tower central which was apparently the primary guardian arrival point. That meant we needed to make our way to the shipwright on foot to give her the warp drive. Well as I headed that way I realized it only meant that 'I' needed to go see the shipwright as my squadmates seemed content to head over to what my HUD indicated as the bounty board and leave me to my own devices.

While the top floor of the Tower was quite spacious in some regards, the corridor that led to the hangar and main engineering bay left something to be desired. Boxes of broken and unused parts lined the otherwise wide corridor and some sort of sensor field, possibly an old checkpoint of some sort, blocked the first third of the hallway but the doorway that led through it offered no impediment to me. A large stairway led down to the far more wide open docking bay. This place had the feel of an industrial space dock. Wire mesh platforms allowed you to see all the way down down to lights of humanity's Last City and the Traveler overhead. Huge conduits transferred the energy needed to power this wing of the building all along the recessed floor space and outer walls. Launch bays took up the majority of the space directly in front of me and a decent number of single seat fighters were coming and going almost constantly. No flight coordinator was involved apparently. Instead these were all Guardian's ships and the Ghosts handled all flight needs.

Taking a left led to a larger central platform. Some sort of arms dealer had a set up directly to the right of the side of this platform with the heraldry that implied connections to an organization called the Vanguard. Down and to my left was another group. These with blue and other similar skin tones all decked out in black and silver. Signs indicated a lounge of some sort both a story above and below directly ahead of me but the lady I sought was ahead and to my right. Up a half flight of stairs from the Vanguard arms dealer. A human female by the name of Holliday was arguing with a robotic individual over the appropriate parts for a specific vintage of spacecraft. At my approach she cut off her conversation with an exasperated sigh, "Look rookie. I told you last time you were in here that we don't have any free spacecraft and we don't have the equipment or the specs to upgrade that rusted out hunk you brought in either. Warp drives aren't just generic pieces of tech. You have to have the proper energy converters and engine hook-ups to even hope that it will work. Not to mention the appropriate computational abilities to ensure you actually end up where you're aiming. With a craft that beat up you would pretty much need the exact…" She cut off immediately as Henry chose that exact moment to transmat the drive we had recovered onto the deck right at her feet. "Where…. how…. what… no way you just found this lying around the Tower. I know every piece of tech for interstellar travel in this entire Dark-cursed city. Don't tell me some Void bait rookie knew where this was just lying around. Who helped you? Where did you find this? Doesn't matter! This is early Golden age stuff but we can make it work. Now get out of here so my guys can make it happen." With a perfunctory wave I was quickly dismissed as she turned back to her previous discussion while two engineers came out of a bay door behind me and loaded the engine on a cart to take off.

The whole exchange took all of five minutes and I hadn't managed to get a word in edgewise the entire time. Standing there at a bit of a loss was enough for Holliday to notice me again and say over her shoulder, "Look kid. Go back and find whatever squad helped you scrounge up this part and go see the Vanguard. They will know what to do with you." Smiling gratefully I turned back the way I had come from and returned to the Tower's central courtyard. Tac had drifted over to the Exo who sold weapons and was engaged in a heated discussion about a scout rifle she had set in front of her. Trip was still deeply engrossed in whatever possibilities the bounty board presented. He balanced his long knife on the tip of his shooting finger while he studied. As I approached he flipped the knife up into the air. End over end it flew up and up as he smoothly rose to his feet and turned to face me. Without looking up he caught the knife by the blade as it plummeted to the ground. Against my will I was extremely impressed and opened my mouth to say so. Trip rolled right over me saying, "This board is only for the more generic bounties the Vanguard has posted. You kill someone important, you have to go talk to them in person." He headed toward Tac as he spoke and we arrived just in time to overhear her say, "Look, you know that I know what I am talking about. No way you could put a heatsink on a scout rifle that could compensate for the output of an automatic trigger, especially if you have the extra power requirements of an elemental bullet."

Shaking his head Banshee-44, the Exo who gave me my hand cannon, replied, "Normally I would agree with you and given majority of the crap that comes through here I would agree, but you haven't seen the weapons from the height of the golden age. Ikora Rey herself had a shotgun from that time that fired full-auto, pumped out solar rounds and had a couple other perks that only she knew about and if anything it's only a little harder for a scout rifle to manage the same." Tac snorted at that, not sure how she managed it with a robotic face but she did, and chose that moment to turn and walk away. Which of course took her right into my chest. Gracefully I stumbled back and fell hard to the ground in a sprawl. My much less dense human form provided no resistance to her and she only stumbled a bit herself. Trip threw his head back and laughed. Tac looked slightly abashed. I looked like an idiot. Not my finest moment and I knew I had lost ground in my attempt to take the lead in how our team would work moving forward. Unfortunately it was clear that the only way to prove myself to Trip would be in combat and probably only if he was my opponent. I saw no way to make that happen and I could only work to keep the damage from getting worse. Tac quickly helped me back to my feet and we muttered apologies to one another about paying more attention. Trip revealed that we would need to speak directly to Vanguard leadership to claim our reward and we all three hastily made our way toward their operations center. Haste brought embarrassment for myself and Tac and eagerness for Trip.

A stairway three body lengths wide sat in the center of the main courtyard, just below the bounty board Trip had been eyeing and fifty yards to the left of the gunsmith who was nestled in the corner behind a giant, ancient, twisting tree with vibrant green leaves. Down this flight of stairs we found the hub of Vanguard activity. A wall blocked this view from the stairwell but openings on the left and right led around and to the first open room. Stacked with banners, weapons and assorted robots doing manual labor the first room housed the Crucible Overseer Lord Shaxx and his quartermaster Arcite 99-40. "There's some fresh blood if I ever saw it!" Shaxx shouted as we came around the corner, "Ready to test your true mettle in the fires of battle against your fellow Guardians." Letting off a sharp salute Tac kindly responded, "Sorry sir. We are taking the fight directly to the enemy for now, but we may come to you for training some time in the future." Shaxx waved us on at her comment and returned to relaying commands on the console to his right. Some information on all of these individuals and the Vanguard mentors we were about to meet was readily available on the local information systems. I knew that Commander Zavala, the blue-skinned Awoken who mentored Titans, had once been very close to Lord Shaxx and a group called the Iron Lords but not why he left them. There was a running joke about the Exo Cayde-6 who mentored Hunters. Everyone said that he had lost a bet several years ago during an extremely dangerous mission that ended with him replacing the last mentor, but by all accounts he had been an effective and powerful Guardian in the field. Something else had to have come into play to bench him. Ikora Rey seemed slightly more forthright than the other two but my own dark-skinned human mentor had once been one of the lead Warlock researchers along with a fellow named Toland until he left for field work and never returned.

All in all there were more mysteries than answers in this "shining beacon of hope" as the net had called the Tower. Governance of the city ran through the hands of the Vanguard and ultimately up to the one they called the speaker, but much of the day to day seemed to be handled by political groups with widely varying agendas, no different from my own time to be truthful. We continued down to another, shorter flight of stairs that opened up on what was obviously a bustling War Room. Gigantic floor-to-ceiling windows lined the opposite end of the room and looked out over the Wall and the wilderness beyond as if to announce that the Vanguard were here at the edge and constantly vigilant against the assault of the Darkness. The upper deck we stopped on held several computer systems with different robotic and human individuals inputting data and talking on comms. The three mentors were the only ones that stood on the lower level around the tactical table itself. They each examined their own data pads, relayed commands to different Guardians in the field and surprisingly bickered back and forth like siblings or old lovers rather than leaders of the fight against the Darkness. Waiting respectfully at the top of the steps afforded us some time to gather our own thoughts, and overhear some of theirs at the same time. "We cannot move until we know the cause of this disturbance among the Devils. They have not been this active since you took your position Cayde so you should recognize that this is highly unusual. You were a scout. You know the value of information." Commander Zavala took the tone of a superior lecturing a recruit and you could tell that Cayde-6 was feeling testing because of it as he responded sarcastically, "Yea Zavala, keep pointing out that I'm the new guy like it makes your position more reasonable. That will make everyone agree with you. Look the truth is they are off balance. I don't know why and I don't particularly care. We need to capitalize on their confusion and strike before they get their wits about them." This exchange had clearly been going on for some time and Ikora Rey apparently deemed it the appropriate time, and us the appropriate distraction, to cut the argument off. "Perhaps these recruits will be able to help us address your concerns Zavala. They were in the area retrieving a warp drive for one of their craft an hour or two before this turmoil started. Maybe they saw something that can help, both in what happened and how to act on it." She was a natural mediator and her smooth voice soothed the others ire at her interruption. "Fine bring them down," Cayde responded with a sulk, so maybe they weren't completely soothed. We descended the stairs at his acquiescence and I summoned Henry just long enough for him to deposit the badges and belt of skulls.

Without hesitation I launched into a much shortened description of our journey, "Recently we made our way to an area known as the Cosmodrome in the region formerly known as Russia. A Fallen House known as the Devils appears to have inhabited the area for quite some time and has done a pretty thorough job looting the place. We went to this location in an attempt to locate and procure a warp drive for my ship, which had originally come from there. During our search we found another ship that had been shot down some time before but which led us to a still functioning computer system which had been brought online by other Guardians. The computer was able to detect various energy signatures. Thankfully this pinpointed a location for us that indicated energy fluctuations unique to the make and model of warp drive we needed to obtain. We downloaded what other information we could and made our way to the point of origin of this signal. Unfortunately for us such a valuable piece of technology had not been left lying around. As a matter of fact the Archon of the House of Devils, one Riksis I believe, was holding on to it for himself. We caused a small disturbance which served to draw him out and after an abbreviated encounter we managed to relieve him of this device along with his life and these badges. The belt was a last minute addition. I felt they deserved a more fitting burial than they would likely have been provided." No one had interrupted during my report for which I was thankful. Ikora, Cayde-6 and Commander Zavala didn't seem as happy as I would have expected either. In fact they moved in close to one another and began speaking in hushed tones that didn't carry to where we stood at the bottom of the stairs. From their expressions it looked like Trips metallic mentor was the only one who heartily approved of what we had done. My fears were confirmed when Commander Zavala looked up with a tight set to his jaw and said, "Guardians, today you have done a great and powerful deed for the City but your lack of foresight may have lost us far more than we have gained if we cannot control the fallout from this incident. As such you will need to return to the Cosmodrome to be our boots on the ground as we deal with what has happened."

"Don't listen to him too closely Guardians. Even if this turns into a giant crap shoot like Zavala fears that will still be better than the utter domination that the Fallen have previously maintained in the area. Besides I'm sure you are just shaking with anticipation at getting back out there. I know I am. You know for you. Not for me. I have to stay here. And work." Cayde-6 lifted our spirits with his humor after Zavala laid down the law and to round it out Ikora filled us in on the next steps in our mission. "Since your incursion we have detected two zones in the Cosmodrome that has had a significant increase in Fallen activity. There's a sealed series of control systems warehouses where they seem to be fighting with someone, maybe other Fallen but we can't be sure, and where the harbor used to be before the ocean receded they seem to be investigating some sort of signal beacons that are set up in the area. We recommend you pursue the control systems warehouses first to ensure they haven't uncovered a weapons array from the Golden Age. That will be all. Good luck Guardians."

With that we had our marching orders and we left swiftly to carry them out. Apparently using the new warp drive we just retrieved would have to wait for a later time.


End file.
